A common component in a telecommunications networking environment is the central office (“CO”). A central office can be a telephone-company building where subscriber lines are joined to switching equipment for connecting other subscribers to each other, local and long distance. Sometimes, a central office is a wire center in which there might be several switching exchanges. In this case, there will be switches, cable-distribution frames, batteries, air-conditioning and heating systems, etc. But a central office may sometimes be a single telephone switch, what may be referred to in Europe as a public exchange.
A component common in a central office is a line gateway frame. Although perhaps referred to by various names in the telecommunications industry, a line gateway frame houses multiple line cards. A line card is an electronic printed circuit card that operates lamps, ringing, holding, and other such features associated with one or several telephone lines or telephones in a telephone system. It can also refer to a device that transmits and receives optical data and converts optical signals to and from electrical signals. Line cards may transmit multiple data streams to and from other line cards. Typically, line cards plug into switches, cross-connects, multiplexors, and routers that form the building blocks of communications networks.
Over time for various reasons, these line cards may need to be replaced with new line cards. Old line cards may become technologically obsolete, damaged through user error, or corrupted from natural causes such as lightning, and consequently, for whatever reason, need to be replaced.
In some situations, line cards need to be replaced en masse; that is, more than one at a time, even a whole shelf or frame at a time. But replacing line cards is currently a time-and resource-intensive process that can take on the order of 10 to 15 minutes to replace a single card. During this time frame associated with replacing a line card, the customers who are serviced by the line card will be without telephone communications service. Thus, business owners, residents, and possibly even emergency personnel will not have access to their phones and other services while one or more line cards associated with their services are being replaced. The current state of the art could be improved by providing, among other things, a way to reduce customer downtime that stems from having to replace old line cards with new line cards.